Melbourne's private sale market continues to tighten

The weekly auction market may capture the attention of many but just under 70% of all homes in Melbourne are sold at private sale.

While this market segment may not have a convenient weekly statistic that  summarises the level of demand and supply, other data in RP Data’s suite of information supports a similar role.

RP Data calculates the time on market for homes for sale at private sale and also the level of vendor discounting. These statistics are available at a metropolitan, council and suburb level. For the purposes of a broad market indicator, the metropolitan wide numbers are the most stable and reliable in a statistical sense.

The most recent time on market data is for the month of February. It showed that the average time between advertising and the contract of sale being signed was 57 days for houses and 65 for units in Melbourne.

For the housing market, this is considerably stronger than last year when it was 72 days, however, the unit market is showing the impact of high levels of new supply as it is now longer than a twelve months when it appeared as 60 days.

As new listings are almost   one third higher than this time last year, the current numbers paint a picture of a remarkably healthy market. It also reflects the fact that vendor discounting is also lower at -6.1% for houses compared to -6.7% a year ago and -5.8% compared to -6.5% for units.

This data shows that conditions present in the auction market are also apparent in the private sale across Melbourne.